Abstract: Death Valley (Calif.), The Jayhawker Party of '49, Antelope, Owens and San Joaquin Valleys

Language:
English.

Administrative Information

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. Theodore S. Palmer, Dec. 14, 1955

Access

Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information
please go to the following
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Publication Rights

In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission
from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical
property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights In some instances,
the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate
curator for further information.

Theodore S. Palmer (1868-1955), naturalist, was born in Oakland, California, and graduated from the University of California
at Berkeley in 1888. He joined the U.S Department of Agriculture as field agent and ornithologist and shortly thereafter,
in 1891, led an expedition from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney. In 1895 he received his M.A. degree from Georgetown University
and in 1896 began work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Biological Survey. He became assistant chief there in 1897
and rose through the ranks until he was named Senior Biologist in 1928. After his retirement in 1933 he worked as an assistant
zoologist, specializing in the nomenclature of mammals and birds, at the United States National Museum. He was a member of
many distinguished organizations, was active on governmental regulatory bodies for game laws, and wrote numerous books and
articles.

The photographs that Palmer's widow donated to the collection were taken between January and September of 1891, when Palmer
and his fellow scientists traversed California while collecting flora and fauna for the Department of Agriculture. The collection
includes photographs of the Antelope, Owens, and San Joaquin Valleys as well as Death Valley. William C. Burnett, a San Francisco
Chronicle reporter who traveled with the expedition from February to May, took many of the Death Valley pictures. A smaller
set of Death Valley pictures was taken by John R. Spears, a NY correspondent who visited Death Valley (December 1891) in the
wake of the Palmer party. Palmer and various members of his party are responsible for the remaining photographs.

Along with the photographs, The Huntington Library houses the personal papers of Palmer (Mss, Theodore S. Palmer Collections),
which include his diary of the 1891 expedition, correspondence with his parents, Henry Austin Palmer and Jane Olivia (Day)
Palmer, and from his brother Harold King Palmer, who was an astronomer at Lick Observatory and at Mt. Wilson in 1906. Housed
separately, ephemera (Collection Box, Californiana, Promotional Literature, Death Valley) relates primarily to Death Valley
and the Jayhawker party that crossed it in 1849

Processing note

The collection was previously housed in a subject file but has since been catalogued into a discrete collection. Old call
numbers are on file with the curator of photographs.

Call Number & Description

PhotCL 416(1)
Residence and 'Desert Outfit' of W. J. Wright, San Bernardino Calif, showing horse and wagon in which trips were made on the
Colorado Desert with Dr. Asa Gray, Dr. C.C. Parry, C.S. Sargeuh, Dr. George Eigelmann [sp.?], S.B. Parish, and other botanists.
Jan'y 1891